<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><<But Avichayil was his uncle, and therefore Esther was his first cousin.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">And Avichayil is unlikely to have been more than 25 years younger than</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">his nephew, and thus his daughter is unlikely to have been more than 70</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">years younger than her first cousin.  Not impossible, but unlikely.>></span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Esther according to the Midrash was 40-80</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><a href="http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/271/Q3/" target="_blank" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/271/Q3/</a><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">She was also a blond (yerakroket)</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<a href="http://daf-yomi.com/DYItemDetails.aspx?itemId=13377" target="_blank" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">http://daf-yomi.com/DYItemDetails.aspx?itemId=13377</a><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<a href="http://tora.us.fm/tnk1/messages/dmut_dmut_1303_0.html" target="_blank" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">http://tora.us.fm/tnk1/messages/dmut_dmut_1303_0.html</a><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">As usual the questions is how lietarlly to accept midrashim as pshat</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Of course according to the archaeological and Greek records Achashverosh is</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">identified with</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Xerxes I (ruled 486-465 BCE). So when Esther was crowned it was at least</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">110 years after the destruction of the Temple making Mordechai at least 120</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">from the time of Yechonya.</span><br clear="all">
<div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><font color="#000099" face="'comic sans ms', sans-serif">Eli Turkel</font></div>
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